Former Tamil Nadu IAS officer Dr Santhosh Babu joins Kamal Haasan’s MNM party

Former bureaucrat Dr Santhosh Babu, who took voluntary retirement from service after his run-in with the Tamil Nadu government over a tender issued for the ambitious BharatNet project, on Tuesday joined the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM).

The MNM President and actor Kamal Haasan welcomed Dr Babu, a medical doctor before he joined the civil services, into the party and appointed him as general secretary – headquarters.

Dr Babu is the second IAS officer to join the MNM after R Rangarajan, who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 elections from South Madras Lok Sabha seat. Also, he is the third top-ranking bureaucrat to have joined politics in Tamil Nadu after K Annamalai, and Shashikant Senthil, IPS and IAS officers of Karnataka cadre, in the past few months.

Dr Babu, a 1995-batch IAS officer known for his honesty and integrity, took voluntary retirement from the service, months after he was shunted out of the high-profile IT department following his refusal to give in to pressure to tweak the tender documents for the BharatNet project. The tender, which he refused to approve, was cancelled by the Union government in June, 2020 as the bidding conditions were “restrictive and discriminatory” in nature.

“The potential of Tamil Nadu is huge and the current governance levels are nowhere near in realising them. Only a good leader can bring about the transformation and technology can play a pivotal role in the process. Why should anyone go to a government office to get their documents? Why can't it be transacted through the internet? This is the change we need,” he told DH.

Acknowledging that the BharatNet tender issue was the “trigger”, Dr Babu said transformation can be brought only by “working on the ground” and not through “rhetoric.”

On why he chose the MNM, Dr Babu said there was a convergence in the “big ideas” that Kamal Haasan has for Tamil Nadu and hence joined the party after scanning the available horizons.

“Kamal Haasan has very big ideas for the state, and I feel I can help him to deliver them...I know achieving things politically is not that easy. But we will continue to try. Change is possible,” he said. At a press conference with Kamal Haasan, Dr Babu said he was so involved in the BharatNet project that he could not even accept an offer from the prime minister’s office, but regretted that the project did not take off.

The BharatNet project envisages laying Optic Fibre Cables to provide broadband connectivity to 12,524 villages in Tamil Nadu.